Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-12-16
A LETTER FROM THE WOODS.
Edward yilo and His Little Woman on
Their Travels.
Especial Correspondence

lSpeCldl COTGeSpOuucuceJ
IN THE WOODS OF MEXICO, Nov. "a
This letter is sent from what one might
call the jumping off place, and will be
sent back by Don Miguel, who has come
on with us to see that we are on the MAN
road for Durango, where we intend to go,
as it is said that that part of the country
has some very interesting prehistoric
ruins, which we wished to sketch, though
we may be some little time reaching there,
as we are told that the tract of country
living between here and there is full of
humming birds Of almost all known and
some probably unknown species. There
are also several kinds of tanagers, which
| hope to find in order to complete my col,
lection.
We are going to camp and travel slowly,
leaving the carriage at our camping place
and tramping about, but you can be GER
tain that we shall so provided hereafter
with compasseS.
The little woman was so shaken by our
experience in the forest that it took her
full three days to recover, which time she
occupied in constructing bOomer suit,
and the Indian women at the Carroll ranch
made her a handsome pair of lcG%ings of
! buckskin. This with a straw hut tied
on with red ribbon, made her look very
| picturesque if not pretty but she bravcly
! shouldered her bug box, as she calls it,
! and her sketching materials and WAS
ready for the hunting expedition in the
! jungles, though the game was to be bugs,
| butterflies and birds. She may make a
scientist yet, tell her, and she retalates
by saying that one lunatc in a family is
enough
We slept the first night under the stars
with a bright fire burning, with our rub
Der blankets and air pillows, but | must
say that / slept little, as l feared the
dreaded puma, but morning dawned and
we were safe. The driver made up the
fire, and our cook aroused himself enough
to give us good breakfast of chocolate,
tortllas and beans, which, with a couple
of eggs apiece, was as good as we desired.
looked up at the little woman to see il
she seemed to have slept badly, and 10
her hair was crinped as perfectly as il
we had been at home and she had put on
clean collar and cuffs! | muttered
something about the ruling passion being
strong in death, but she asked so sWeetly
what | said that | gave it up, and now
honestly believe that if she were dead ant
laid in her coffin she couldn't rest there
unless her crmps were I'm. '
That day She put the climax to my adj
miration by capturing and preserving
) green caterpillar as long as her finger.
wouldn't be afraid to trust her in thu
house all alone with a mouse now. a
woman who can fearlessly catch such {
; looking thing and get it into bottle Will
neck not much bigger around than itsel
is bound to achieve something some day
/ wouldn't be surprised now if she should
; Stay something worth being called gam
/, or carry her fish bait in her mouth, as few
ladies learn to do.
The woods are humming and buzzin!
with insect life, and my only fear is tina
shall not have space for all the new ant
Z rare specimens we find. We do not us
the old style alcohol manner of preserving
them, but have bottle of dry poison, tn
fumes of which stupefy and kill then
instantly without wetting them.
We are at the bottom of ravine, o
g rather valley, with two abrupt sides
= which look as if they had once been on
c mountain which had been riven an
stretched apart. All along the valley
u rich grass knee deep, in which there ar
u endless numbers of insects, and from som
G moist ground the cook, whose name
Il Manuel, has found basket of crawiisf
Il and the little woman two horned toad'
: The middle of the ravine has no tree
l which sets me thinking how strange it
T. that often in the densest forest you CON
S out upon an open glade without so muc
l. as bush, and wondering how it happene
y that nature has forgot to plant trees thel
u too. The little woman suggests that pc
haps there is n difference in the soil, so t.
IS morrow / shall try to understand it.
o Manuel tells us that there is u very r
2, markable cavern near here, which is fu
&c of heads and bones and cups and jar
of We had the misfortune to break our be
water jar and he suggested this cave
n the most natural thing in the world.
10 it had not been for this we should ha'
ell gone within stones throw OF it igno
V, antly. We shall try to explore it t
es morrow. EDWARD WHO.
~
g Eternal Fitness.
L, ll.nL.nE. Z nl.n